Luxury accessories club Vivrelle launches mobile app

Dive Brief:

• Luxury accessories rental club Vivrelle is launching its mobile app Tuesday, the startup announced in an email to Retail Dive. 

• Beginning at $99 per month, members can rent luxury items like handbags, watches, diamonds and jewelry from Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Hermès, Cartier and other high-end brands. Subscribers can exchange the items, extend their rental term or purchase products at members-only prices, the company said. 

• The mobile app allows users to bookmark their favorite accessories as an extension of their wish list and receive push notifications when items become available. The app also gives perks for members who refer other users, and offers access to celebrity and influencer closets like former “The Real Housewives of New York City” star Jill Zarin and “Summer House” star Paige DeSorbo, per the press release.

Dive Insight:

Vivrelle noted in its announcement that it aspires to make luxury fun, affordable and sustainable for its members. Blake Geffen, co-founder at Vivrelle, said in a statement that the company wants to give its users an even easier and more efficient way to experience luxury accessories. 

“We know many of our members are constantly on-the-go so creating an app to ensure they have easy, streamlined access no matter the location was extremely important to us,” Geffen said. “This has been a goal of ours since launching in September 2018 and we’ve worked hard to perfect our mobile experience to create a convenient, elevated shopping experience for fashion lovers everywhere.” 

As Vivrelle tries to lure customers with its mobile app and top-tier brands, other companies are also vying for a share of the fashion rental market. Armoire, a clothing rental startup, introduced its digital dressing room feature for its members last July. Wardrobe, a peer-to-peer apparel rental platform, launched nationwide in September with support from Airbnb co-founder Nate Blecharczyk. Similarly to Vivrelle, Wardrobe also enlisted notable figures like Sophia Li, a journalist and director, formerly at Vogue; Lucie Zhang, social media director at Vogue; Cyan Banister, an angel investor who has funded Uber, Postmates and SpaceX to speak during an online panel series.

But as new entrants carve out a share of the fashion rental market for themselves, it remains to be seen how the used clothing segment will evolve over time. Rent the Runway, for example, discontinued its “Unlimited Swap” subscription option last September, but subscribers who already used the service were able to continue doing so until early this year. Experts predict that the used clothing market and resale platforms can survive the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to attract consumers.